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Once sailor, forever sailor

Friday, December 21, 2012

Chinese Support for North Vietnam during the Vietnam War: The Decisive Edge

by Bob Seals

“Best turn it into a bigger
war…I’m afraid you really ought to send more troops to the South…Don’t
be afraid of U.S. intervention, at most it’s no worse than having
another Korean War. The Chinese army is prepared, and if America takes
the risk of attacking North Vietnam, the Chinese army will march in at
once. Our troops want a war now.” [1]
--
Mao speaking to the North Vietnamese in 1964

So why did the powerful modern nations of France and the United States
lose two wars in Vietnam to a third rate military power like North
Vietnam? This is the logical question that many historians have asked
and attempted to answer since the Second Vietnam War ended in April 1975
with the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese tanks. Some historians
have stressed the support of the Communist party and its leadership,
others point to the support of the Vietnamese people, and still other
historians explain the North Vietnamese victory as an effect of the
post-colonial nationalism wave that swept through Asia after the Second
World War. However, few historians, with the possible exception of
Qiang Zhai, among others, attribute the victory of the Vietnamese
Communists in both Vietnam Wars to the considerable support provided by
the communist colossus of the north, the People’s Republic of China. [2]
This Chinese military support, to include equipment, advisors and
planning assistance, provided from 1949-1975, would prove in both the
First and Second Indochina Wars to be decisive. This substantial
military support would give the People‘s Army of Vietnam an edge to
resist Western forces and eventually subjugate the Republic of South
Vietnam. This support, for various reasons, has never really been
acknowledged by most popular histories of the conflict. This is perhaps
due to the fact that such acknowledgement of the massive Chinese
military support provided challenges many cherished myths of Vietnamese
Communist military brilliance and the “heroic struggle” against
overwhelming western imperialists. Two recent histories bear this out.
Case in point
A Military History of China,
edited by David A. Graff makes no mention of Chinese support for
Vietnam while Bruce A. Elleman’s Modern Chinese Warfare, 1795-1989,
dismisses Chinese support in a mere two sentences. [3] However,
unless this decisive Chinese support is properly understood by students
of both Vietnam wars the answer to the question of why North Vietnam won
will remain incomplete and misunderstood. This paper will attempt to
outline the Chinese communist support in both wars and explain exactly
why this support was so decisive.

Background

As with most historical events one must first understand, in broad
general terms, the background and context to a specific point in time. A
brief review of the historical Sino-Vietnamese relationship sets the
tone for more recent events, in many respects. Ties between China and
Vietnam have existed for centuries; in fact, throughout history Vietnam
has depended upon and looked towards China repeatedly for not only
cultural but political assistance as circumstances warranted. Vietnam
was considered by China to be part of her tributary system, or sphere of
influence if you will, where by the lesser state, Vietnam, would
acknowledge the leadership of Imperial China in return for trade and
defense as required. In the 18th century, for example Chinese troops
intervened in Vietnam to assist a threatened ruler and again less
successfully in the latter half of the 19th century against France
expanding her influence in the area, with the so-called “Black Flag”
forces. This concern for Vietnam would continue with China declaring
war on France on 27 August 1884, in fact, due to French expansion into
Northern Vietnam. [4]

This traditional relationship between China and Vietnam was not always
harmonious as many have pointed out, since, for obvious reasons, no
nation enjoys domination by a more powerful neighbor.

The Chinese Vietnamese Communist ties had existed for decades, in fact,
before the first Chinese military advisor arrived in North Vietnam in
1950. The life of Nguyen That Thanh, who would ultimately be known to
the world under the pseudonym Ho Chi Minh, best personifies the close
relationship that existed between the two communist parties, and
ultimately the two armies.

The ties go back to right after the First World War, in fact. In 1920
Ho would be one of 285 delegates, and the only “Comrade Indochinese
Delegate,” that founded the French Communist Party in Tours. [5] Ho
made an impassioned speech at the conference listing France’s crimes in
Vietnam “…we have not only been oppressed and exploited shamelessly, but
also tortured and poisoned…we have been poisoned with opium, alcohol,
etc.” [6]

The following year the Chinese Communist Party would be formed in 1921.
The party from the beginning would serve as a rallying point for
disgruntled Vietnamese such as Ho, and others, wanting to resist French
rule in Vietnam. [7] After several years of training in Moscow, Ho
eventually made his way to China, the then front lines of the
revolution, to assist Mikhail Borodin, the Communist International, or
COMINTERN representative to the new Nationalist government of Sun
Yat-sen. Organizing Vietnamese revolutionaries in Canton, Ho lectured
at the famous Nationalist Whampoa Military Academy, meeting such
communist luminaries such as Zhou Enlai and others, before returning to
Moscow after the Chinese Nationalist-Communist split in 1927. [8] He
would also organize the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 which in
time would become the Vietnamese Worker Party. A dedicated COMINTERN
agent who traveled on a Soviet passport, Ho was known as Nguyen Ai Quoc
(Nguyen the Patriot) during this period and would only be known as Ho
Chi Minh (Ho the Enlightened ) after 1943. He would travel between Asia
and Moscow before finally returning to China in 1938 to serve as an
advisor to the Chinese Communist 8th Route Army, along with other senior
Vietnamese revolutionaries. [9] Ho became quite proficient in
Chinese and would translate Mao’s celebrated work, “On the Protracted
War,” from Chinese into French. [10]

Second World War and French Reoccupation

Seasoned by years of training and his experiences China Ho would found
the Viet Minh independence movement in 1941, the Vietnamese Doc Lap Dong
Minh Hoi, the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh. He
would spend the remainder of the war organizing in the north of Vietnam
and attempting to remain out of French and Chinese jail. During the
war the Viet Minh would consolidate their power in the north of Vietnam
with history teacher turned General Vo Nguygen Giap building communist
forces reaching some 5,000 in number. [11]

By the time the Second World War ended in August of 1945, with the
collapse of Imperial Japan, the organized and disciplined Vietnamese
communists and Ho were perfectly positioned to move into the power
vacuum left in the wars wake in Vietnam. In September of 1945 Ho would
proclaim the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
with American Office of Strategic Service (OSS) officers beside him in
Hanoi. Nationalist Chinese and British troops that same month arrived
to take the surrender of the Japanese forces, with reoccupation by the
returning French soon afterwards. A period of unease settled over
Vietnam with the French and Vietnamese negotiated over the future of
Vietnam, with Ho at one point traveling to Paris for unsuccessful
meetings with the French government. Ho would formally request military
aid to include advisors and equipment from Stalin and the USSR in 1945,
with no response to these requests given in return. [12] The Chinese
in the future would not make the same mistake.

First Indochina War

The First Vietnam War would finally begin in December of 1946 as the
French attempted to disarm the Viet Minh Self Defense Forces in Hanoi
and full scale fighting broke out. [13] By early 1947 the French had
driven the Viet Minh out of the major cities throughout the country but
the communists controlled the countryside in the north with a growing
army of some 50,000 men capable of standing up to the best the
professional French Army and Navy could throw at them. [14] The war
settled down to a deadly affair of guerrilla war, ambush and counter
ambush as the Vietnamese and French forces fought for control of Vietnam
and the population.

It was during these early years of the war that the Chinese military
support of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) began on a rather minor
scale. This military aid started in March of 1946 as the Chinese
Communist First Regiment of the Southern Guangdong People’s Force
crossed into Vietnam in order to avoid Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist
46th and 64th Armies during the Chinese Civil War. [15] In addition to
avoiding destruction this Chinese Regiment would begin to lay the
groundwork for training and advising the less mature Vietnamese forces.
This one thousand man unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,
PLA, would provide officers to the Vietnamese Advanced Infantry School
and Cadre Training Center in North Vietnam with some 830 personnel
trained by the year 1947. [16] Direct contact to include cable
traffic and funding existed at this early point between the two
communist movements.

The strategic balance of power, in Asia and perhaps across the globe,
was forever altered with the establishment of the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) in October of 1949. After two years of relatively small
scale guerrilla warfare
dating from 1947 in
Vietnam, the conflict would now expand and become much more deadly.
With the arrival of Chinese communist troops along the Sino-Vietnamese
border, the inevitable end was in sight for the French in Vietnam. As
General Giap would write years later, “This great historic event, which
altered events in Asia and throughout the world, exerted a considerable
influence on the war of liberation of the Vietnamese people. Vietnam
was no longer in the grip of enemy encirclement, and was henceforth
geographically linked to the socialist bloc.” [17]

Understandably enough Ho and the Viet Minh wasted no time in sending
representatives northward to ask for support and assistance from the new
communist government. Diplomatic recognition would be granted to the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in January of 1950 by the PRC, the
first nation to do so, followed soon by Stalin and the USSR also
granting recognition. [18] Stalin, as the senior member of the
communist firm, had informed Mao during meetings in Moscow soon
afterwards that providing support and assistance to the Vietnamese
struggle was a responsibility, and financial obligation, of the Chinese
and the PRC. [19] This would not be an obligation that the Chairman
would shirk from, far from it, he would honor Stalin's wishes and
support the Vietnamese communist cause for the next 25 years. Mao would
see Vietnam as one of three areas of Western imperialism bordering on
China that threatened the PRC, the other two areas being Taiwan and
Korea. Additionally Mao sincerely believed in supporting “national
liberation movements in colonial nations” and fancied himself as the
champion of non-European peoples across the globe. [20]

For the USSR and Stalin it was a low risk gamble. Its allies, the
Chinese under Mao, and the Koreans and Vietnamese, could potentially tie
down so much U.S. and Western strength in Asia that the global balance
of power might shift, allowing the Soviets to strike westwards into
Europe. Stalin discounted a Third World War and the west’s reaction
since Germany and Japan were post-war shells, proclaiming “Should we
fear this [world war]? In my opinion, we should not…If a war is
inevitable, then let it be waged now, and not in a few years time.” [21]
The die would be cast for warfare in Asia, and possibly elsewhere.

Chinese military support, 1950-54

Hổ và Giáp

In 1950 a classified U.S. Central Intelligence Report, CIA, stated that
“The French position in Indochina is precarious,” somewhat of an
understatement at the time. [22] The war had been going badly for the
French and would only get worse. Ho would formally request military
aid in the nature of equipment, advisors and training for the PAVN in
April of 1950. Interestingly enough he would also request Chinese
commanders at the regimental and battalion level
to assist the Vietnamese
Army, a request wisely denied by China, who would send advisors, not
commanders to the North of Vietnam. [23] Such a request for Chinese
commanders of PAVN units highlights the leadership problems present at
the time in the Vietnamese forces, and the
prevailing lack of
confidence in Vietnamese commanders.

Chinese Military Advisory Group

After this request by Ho, the PRC in April of 1950 would begin forming
the Chinese Military Advisory Group (CMAG) in order to provide military
assistance to the Vietnamese
forces fighting the
French. General Wei Guoqing would lead the CMAG to North Vietnam, along
with Senior General Chen Geng, the “scholar general,” and the PRC
ambassador. The Second, Third and Fourth PLA field armies were directed
to select experienced officers for service in Vietnam. Some 281
officers were selected with many having command experience. [24]

In June, two days after
the start of the Korean War, as the powerful North Korean Army crossed
the 38th parallel, the Chairman spoke with his military advisors enroute
to Vietnam, “It is President Ho chi Minh who has asked me for [your
assistance], Who would have thought our revolution would succeed first?
We should help them. It is called internationalism. You will help
them to win the battles after you get to Vietnam.” [25] The advisors
of the CMAG would do exactly that as the impact of these Chinese
advisors and new weapons for the PAVN would soon be apparent in the war.
Standard Chinese Maoist doctrine for revolutionary wars would be
stressed and advisors were informed to avoid the “mentality of big-state
chauvinism and not to display contempt for the Vietnamese.” [26] By
1950 the French had almost completely lost control of the border region
with China with isolation garrisons in Cao Bang and Langson struggling
to maintain a presence.

The border region would be the first test of the new Chinese trained and
equipped PAVN forces. General Chen Geng wrote in a report that “Some
Vietnamese crack units are in high morale after receiving training and
equipment in Yunnan and Guangxi, but Vietnamese cadres above the
battalion level lack command experience in actual combat.” [27] This
was an accurate statement concerning the PAVN but it was one problem
about to be corrected.

The CMAG would provide planning guidance, among other things, for the
upcoming Border Campaigns of 1950. This campaign would begin in
September with garrison after garrison falling to the Viet Minh in the
north with tremendous losses for the isolated French garrisons near the
Sino-Vietnamese border. Outnumbered 8 to 1 by the Vietnamese, the
French would lose immense amounts of men to include 6,000 of 10,000 men
in the north, and supplies to include 13 artillery pieces, 125 mortars
and 450 trucks, in what some have described as the greatest defeat in
French colonial history since the French and Indian War in North
America. [28]

Within 48 hours after these successful assaults on those isolated
French outposts in the north, Chinese General Chen would hold what we
would call today an after action review. Chen would brief Giap and
other high ranking officers for four hours on the shortcomings of the
Vietnamese Army. These short comings according to Chen would include
not following the order for battle and attacking late, commanders not
leading assaults from the front, poor communications, and cadres making
false reports to superiors.[29] One wonders how such criticism was
received but such reviews are vital for an army’s subsequent growth and
improvement. To General Giap “The victory shows Mao’s military thought
was very applicable to Vietnam.” [30]

In addition to the training and planning guidance by the CMAG the
logistical support from China began to increase steadily. The support
provided was only 10-20 tons a month in 1951, increasing to 250 tons a
month in 1952, further increasing to 600 tons a month in 1953 and 1,500
to 4,000 tons monthly during the last year of the war in 1954. [31]
Additionally the Chinese transportation network to include roads and
railways leading from China to Vietnam was improved also with some 1,000
trucks provided to the PAVN. This military aid provided by China
enabled the PAVN to expand into a well armed and trained conventional
force capable of defeating the French Army in large scale offensive
operations. From a force in 1950 of 3 divisions the PAVN would expand
two years later into a force of 7 divisions. All in all the Chinese
military aid would arm a total of over 7 PAVN divisions. All this
military support would not go unnoticed by the west, with the CIA, by
March 1952, estimating that some 15,000 Chinese Communists were serving
in Vietnam in various “technical, advisory and garrison capacities” with
the PAVN against the French. [32] The Vietnamese Army now was a
lethal force well equipped with small arms, machine guns, heavy 120mm
mortars and 105mm howitzers, in addition to 20 and 40mm anti-aircraft
guns. [33]

Decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu

By 1954 “Giap and the Chinese had built a tough, well-equipped,
experienced, and dedicated army-a tool awaiting a great task and a
master craftsman.” [34] The great task would be the decisive battle
of Dien Bien Phu in western Vietnam near Laos, a battle that would end
the First Vietnam War and the French presence in Indochina. Evidence
suggests that the Vietnamese leadership did not see the opportunity
provided by the French reoccupation of the valley until Chinese advisors
alerted the Vietnamese, who initially wanted to move through Laos to
invade South Vietnam, until convinced otherwise by General Wei Guoqing.
[35] Additionally the CMAG would provide the Viet Mihn with a copy of
the Navarre Plan, outlining French goals and objectives by the new
French Commander in Vietnam.

With the signing of the Korean Armistice in July 1953 China could and
would shift additional resources to Vietnam. Specific support provided
for the Dien Bien Phu campaign would include planning, logistics,
engineering advisors, trucks, rocket and 75mm recoilless rifle
battalions, and Soviet Katyusha Rocket Launchers or “Stalin Organs.” A
combined headquarters was established as the Dien Bien Phu Campaign
Command with General Giap as Commander in Chief with Chinese General Wei
Guoqing as General Advisor. [36]

Giap wrote years after the battle that “I felt there needed to be a
meeting with the head of the team of friendly military experts who was
also present. Generally speaking, relationships between us and friendly
military experts ever since the Border Campaign had been excellent.
Our friends had given us the benefit of their invaluable experience
drawn from the revolutionary war in China and the anti-US war in Korea.”
[37] It is interesting that in his account of the battle Giap makes
no mention of Chinese material support or advice and planning assistance
provided throughout this decisive last battle of the First Vietnam War.
The Chinese advisors, such as General Wei Guoqing, are not identified
or given any credit by Giap. Perhaps this is understandable given that
one of the Chinese advisors would write later that “The greatest
shortcoming of the Vietnamese Communists was their fear of letting other
people know their weaknesses. They lacked Bolshevist self-criticism.”
[38] The siege of Dien Bien Phu was to last 8 weeks with China
providing 8,286 tons of supplies, including 4,620 tons of petroleum,
1,360 tons of ammunition, 46 tons of weapons and 1,700 tons of rice from
supply depots 600 miles away. [39]

Chinese advisors would be involved at all levels during the battle
including digging in the all important Vietnamese artillery into
shellproof dugouts, experience learned the hard way in the hills of
Korea. [40] In effect the battle of Dien Bien Phu would be planned and
assisted by Chinese advisors and fought with Chinese trained, equipped,
supplied, transported and fed PAVN troops in a military soup to nuts
manner. This support is rarely mentioned as a contributing factor to
the Vietnamese victory in 1954 but should be acknowledged in analyzing
the battle.

Post-war support, 1955-63

In 1954, with the ending
of the First Vietnam War, and the Big Power Geneva conference, Vietnam
would be split into two nations, North and South Vietnam. In the north
Ho and the party’s attention would be focused; at least for several
years, on consolidating power and economic development. The inevitable
Communist collectivization and tribunals began with confiscations,
arrests, localized uprisings and the execution of 15,000 Vietnamese
before order could be restored by the PAVN. [41] The CMAG returns to
China in September of 1955 having accomplished its mission, quite
possibly one of the most successful advisory missions ever. [42]

China would continue; however, to provide substantial levels of military
aid for North Vietnam to the tune of $106 million from 1955 to 1963,
effectively giving the North the resources needed to begin the
insurgency in the South. [43] Thus, the North Vietnamese would form
the National Liberation Front, NLF, in December of 1960 and the People’s
Liberation Armed Forces, PLAF, the following year in 1961. Both the
NLF and PLAF would be more commonly referred to as the Viet Cong, or
Vietnamese Communists. [44]

A campaign of terror and assassination against the South Vietnamese
government would soon begin as thousands of officials would be killed or
kidnapped by Viet Cong insurgents. [45] The United States would not
sit idly by during this period but began an ambitious program of
military aid to the fragile government of South Vietnam. The stage was
set, for a second war in Vietnam which would be, once again, fought
largely with Chinese military aid.

Second Indochina War, 1964-75

The catalyst for the Second Vietnam War would be the controversial Gulf
of Tonkin incident in August of 1964 between the U.S. Navy and North
Vietnamese torpedo boats in the China Sea. [46] Perhaps convinced by
President Johnson’s own words that election year that he would not
expand the limited war in Vietnam by bombing the North or “committing a
good many American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be
fought by the boys of Asia,” the North continued its attacks. Now with
U.S. aircraft striking targets in North Vietnam the liberation war
paradigm changed. The incident greatly alarmed both the Vietnamese and
Chinese Communist leadership and caused both to move closer together in
responding to increased U.S. military actions in Southeast Asia. China
took immediate steps to move forces south towards the border with
Vietnam and sent MIG jet aircraft to Hanoi to bolster the DRV’s
defensives. Perhaps due to several factors, to include possible
concern over Chinese intervention, the United States would gradually
adopt a strategy of attempting to limit the war in Vietnam, or
gradualism, not applying the maximum force possible towards defeating an
enemy on the battlefield. [47] To the north Chairman Mao remained
concerned about the U.S., in his opinion “the most ferocious enemy of
the people of the world.” [48] Thus, when senior North Vietnamese
leaders, to include General Giap, formally requested Chinese military
aid in April of 1965, the response would be swift and sure. The PRC
President would tell the Vietnamese that the Chinese people and party
were obligated to support the North and therefore “…we will do our best
to provide you with whatever you need and whatever we have.” [49]

Support requested and provided

Hoàng Sa

The most immediate need was for anti-aircraft artillery, units to
counter the overwhelming American air power over North Vietnam. Ho
would request Chinese AAA units during a meeting with Mao in May of 1965
and PLA forces would begin flowing into North Vietnam in July of 1965
to help defend the capital of Hanoi and the transportation network to
include railroad lines and bridges.[50] This movement of troops from
China was not lost on the U.S. as reported in a Top Secret CIA Special
Report which identified seven major PLA units in North Vietnam to
include the 67th AAA Division, and an estimated 25,000 to 45,000 Chinese
combat troops total. [51] Recent Chinese sources indicate that this
PLA AAA Division did indeed operate in the western area of North
Vietnam. [52] In addition to AAA forces the PLA also provided
missiles, artillery and logistics, railroad, engineer and mine sweeping
forces. These forces would not only man AAA sites but would also build
and repair Vietnamese infrastructure damaged or destroyed by U.S.
airstrikes. [53] Such units would have quite a bit of repair work to
do given that there would be more than a million tons of bombs dropped
by U.S. aircraft upon North Vietnam from 1965 to 1972. [54] The
Second Vietnam War would drag on for years as a sort of operational
stalemate existed in the skies over North Vietnam. The U.S. could and
did bomb the North at will, but the sheer numbers of Chinese forces, to
include a total of 16 AAA divisions serving with a peak strength of
170,000 troops attained in 1967, would ensure that a high price would be
paid by U.S. pilots with targets often rapidly rebuilt after
destruction. [55] Chinese engineering and logistics units would
perform impressive feats of construction throughout their stay in North
Vietnam effectively keeping the transportation network functioning.

The U.S. Air Campaign over North Vietnam would thus be somewhat of a
lost cause, not significantly hurting the communist North enough for Ho
and the senior leadership to contemplate ending the insurgency in South
Vietnam. Chinese troops in North Vietnam would eventually withdraw, for
the most part, by 1970 as the Sino-Vietnamese relationship began to
sour over the Paris Peace Talks, and the USSR, among other things. In
addition to the AAA umbrella over the North, China would also provide
the sinews of modern war that would enable the North Vietnamese Army to
undertake modern, large scale offensive operations against South Vietnam
in
both 1972 and 1975.
Chinese trucks, tanks, Surface to air missiles, MIG jet aircraft, 130mm
artillery pieces, 130mm mortars,
and shoulder fired
anti-aircraft missiles, were all moved south. The PAVN had enough first
class material to launch a 20 division mechanized Easter Offensive in
1972 into South Vietnam, more divisions than ever commanded by General
Patton in Europe during World War II, as one American Officer would
point out. [56] The North Vietnamese would pay a terrible price
for this gamble, thanks
to U.S. airpower and advisors on the ground, losing an estimated 450
tanks and over 100,000 troops killed in action during the 1972
offensive. [57] China would, again, make up for much of the PAVN
equipment lost, after the Paris Peace Treaty was signed, in 1973 and
1974, enabling the North Vietnamese to reconstitute units for another
offensive in 1975. U.S. forces would not be present this time to help
its South Vietnamese allies as 18 well trained and equipped PAVN
divisions rolled to Saigon in April of 1975, effectively ending the
Second Vietnam War. [58] Both Vietnam Wars, from 1946-1975, ended in
victory for North Vietnam against the west, but without the massive
amounts of military aid provided by the PRC, most likely the outcome
would have been different. As with all what-if’s of history we shall
never know.

Analysis of support

“So the more troops they send to Vietnam, the happier we will be, for we
feel that we will have them in our power, we can have their blood…They
will be close to China…in our grasp. They…will be our hostages.” [59]
- -
Chou En-lai speaking to Nasser, 1965

So how does one analyze the considerable military support provided by
the PRC for the DRV during the 25 year period from 1950-1975,
encompassing both the First and Second Vietnam Wars? Was the military
aid provided, to include equipment, advisors and planning assistance,
decisive in both conflicts or would the North Vietnamese have prevailed
without this Chinese military support? In retrospect it seems clear
that the Chinese military support for the DRV would be crucial. This
Chinese support would be, in many respects, timely, appropriate and
helpful without doing the job that the North Vietnamese needed to do
themselves; that is, fight and win on the ground in South
Vietnam. The PRC would
not conduct an intervention on the scale that it conducted in Korea,
avoiding the international perception of acting in the traditional
China/tributary state relationship with Vietnam, all the while providing
the tools and assistance required to “tip the scales” in both conflicts
against the West. The People’s Republic would be, in effect, the
world’s largest unsinkable aircraft carrier and army base, a strategic
advantage that Western nations thousands of miles removed from the
fighting could not hope to match.

As a biographer of Chairman Mao would remark “It was having China as a
secure rear and supply depot that made it possible for the Vietnamese to
fight for 25 years and beat first the French and then the Americans.”
[60]

The numbers would be impressive enough, of the military equipment and
supplies provided by China. According to Qiang Zhai, during the period
1950-54, the PRC would provide enough weapons, 116,000 small arms and
4630 artillery pieces, to equip some 5 infantry divisions, one heavy
engineering and artillery division, one direct fire anti-aircraft
artillery regiment and one guards regiment. [61] This infusion of
equipment for almost seven divisions worth of troops could not, and
would not, be matched by the French. As one U.S. military officer would
comment years later “The French politicians continued their irresolute,
incoherent, and penny-pinching support of military operations in
Indochina, while demanding ‘decisive solutions.’” [62] The numbers
would be even more impressive in the Second Vietnam War. Chinese
support provided would increase by a factor of ten with arms and
equipment from uniforms to tanks to small arms on a yearly basis greater
than the entire military aid provided in the early 1950’s against the
French. [63] Additionally the Chinese anti-aircraft artillery troops,
peaking at a total of 17 divisions and 150,000 men in 1967, would claim
credit for downing 1,707 U.S. aircraft over North Vietnam. [64]
These Chinese combat troops who were not to be used south of the 21st
parallel in North Vietnam; however, the presence of these units secured
the North’s rear, turning the nation into the most heavily defended area
in the world, and allowing the DRV to use resources in South Vietnam
and elsewhere that would have been devoted to homeland defense. [65]
In effect the U.S. would not be able to open a second front over the
skies of North Vietnam, as it had been able to so successfully over
Germany in the Second World War, due to these Chinese divisions.

But the mere presence of China to the north would also be a constant
“sword of Damocles” hanging over the heads of Western and South
Vietnamese nations. This nearness would also ensure that the ever
present possibility of massive, full scale Chinese intervention would
always be a factor that had to be considered by Western political and
military leaders. Any plans for taking the fight to the North Vietnamese
enemy on his home field by going north could not be seriously
considered given the clear warnings by the PRC that it would intervene
with massive force. The Chinese took great pains to communicate this
willingness to fight on behalf of North Vietnam, if seriously
threatened, to the United States, communicating warnings via various
channels to include ambassadorial talks in Poland, third-party leaders
such as the Pakistani and Tanzania Presidents and the British ambassador
in Beijing. [66] In some respects this pledge of assistance was just
as valuable as the tanks, trucks and guns provided by the PRC.

Conclusion

“Why have the Americans not made a fuss about the fact that more than
100,000 Chinese troops help you building the railways, roads and
airports although they knew about it?” [67]
- -
Chairman Mao to Vietnamese Premier Dong, 1970

In conclusion, as we can see from the considerable historical material
outlined above, the military support provided by the People’s Republic
of China, to include advisors, equipment and combat troops, was the
decisive factor for the Communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam
prevailing during 1949-1975 in both the First and Second Vietnam Wars.
The small arms, mortars, ammunition, uniforms, tanks, artillery, radars,
anti-aircraft guns, jet aircraft, trucks, and naval vessels were
critical in the North Vietnamese struggle. However, what was even more
critical and normally not acknowledged in the laundry list of war
material is the psychological and strategic advantage provided by
Communist China’s pledge to intervene in the advent of a United States
invasion of North Vietnam, and communicating that pledge to the U.S.
This strategic advantage in effect cannot be overstated.

As General Westmoreland’s former G-2, or Intelligence Officer would
write after the Vietnam Wars “With a friendly China located adjacent to
North Vietnam, there would have been little chance for a Vietnamese
victory against the French, and later against the Americans and South
Vietnamese.” [68] It is rather ironic that most professional
historians tend to downplay or ignore China’s decisive role in North
Vietnam’s victory while the military and intelligence communities, U.S.
at least, are much more willing to acknowledge this fact. Perhaps this
is understandable since if one acknowledges the role played by China it
calls into question such Vietnam myths as the “poorly armed guerrilla”
and the “military genius” of Giap, among other issues. Historians such
as Xiaoming Zhang and Qiang Zhai are challenging the paradigm of
accepted Vietnam history and in doing so are performing a great service.

“Thus the highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy plans;”
according to the learned military theorist Sun-Tzu in the Art of War.
[69] In respects this is exactly what the North Vietnamese, and
Chinese did in both Vietnam Wars: they successfully attacked the Western
powers war plans. The considerable support for the DRV by the PRC, to
include a promise to intervene with massive numbers of troops in the
event of an invasion of North Vietnam, effectively eliminated this
course of action, and perhaps others, as potential war winning options
for the West. Thus, with the support of China, on a strategic level of
war the DRV was able to remain upon the offensive throughout the war,
maintaining the initiative and finally achieving victory as Saigon fell
in April of 1975.

[51]. Special Report, Status of Soviet and Chinese Military Aid to
North Vietnam, CIA Report, 03 September 1965, and Intelligence
Memorandum, Chinese Communist Forces in North Vietnam, CIA Report, 29
September 1966, Freedom of Information Act, accessed on line,
http://www.foia.cia.gov, 30 June 2008.

About the author:
Bob Seals is a retired Army Special Forces officer with service in the 1st and 3rd Special Forces Group,
1st Special Warfare Training Group, SF Command, Security Assistance Training Management Organization,
and Special Operations Command-Korea. He is working as an Operations Analyst for General Dynamics
Information Technology at the Special Operations Mission Training Center, Fort Bragg, NC.

Published online: 09/23/2008.

* Views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent
those of MHO.

25 comments:

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